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It's not that Windows doesn't have standard locations, it's that most developers continue to ignore them. Microsoft set up special folders for the various data types all the way back on Windows 95/98, complete with environmental variables that always correctly point to those locations (even if the user has moved them to a different folder/drive). The associated documentation makes it very clear what sort of data goes in what special folder, but even now most developers don't bother following these standards properly unless they are forced to (e.g. for Games for Windows branding).

In the case of saved games there is a special folder for that (%USERPROFILE%\Saved Games) from Vista onwards, but because XP doesn't support it most games simply save to Documents; only a small number of games check the OS being used and then save in the appropriate location. A few poorly ported games even put saves in %APPDATA%.

Unfortunately the safest way is still to back up the entire %USERPROFILE% folder plus the individual save subfolders for games that save into the game's own folder.

drennan: That of course depends on the legislation in your area, but it definitely applies to the US (see DMCA) and to the EU (see Directive 2001/29/EC). If you know something I don't, do share. :)

I was actually "not sure" ;-). Because I don't know where you draw the line with "reverse engineering" and all that. I didn't want to say that with this that either is bad, just that the legality is uncertain.

Different thing. If GOG really sold a game that has problems running simply because it is not installed inside Program Files, I'm quite sure GOG would fix it quite fast, as it is a simple fix after all.

Interstate'76, on the other hand, was so poorly coded by Activision that GOG probably won't be able to ever fix it completely. The biggest reason being how the games starts bugging out on anything above slow Pentium speeds.

Not at all. If it's an issue that only affects certain versions of Windows, such as CJK based ones, then GOG will not test for it. The issue I have with Interstate is specific to certain non English versions of Windows and requires changing system unicode settings to solve it.

This is an issue that is still very common with other games, such as many EA ones that force the use of certain characters in game names/install paths, and so forth. Even Dungeon Defenders, at release, had the same issue.

drennan: Because it's slightly easier, not to mention a lot more legal, to manually extract an InnoSetup package than to remove a DRM system?

Who said anything about removing anything? If the DRM is not a problem in the first place, there's no reason to remove it. I.e., simply copying and pasting a key into an installer takes 5 seconds, which is hardly an issue.

Thanks! The good news is that the installers you listed are older than those of Duke3D, Primordia or A New Beginning, and the list of forbidden characters no longer include parentheses in the latter three, so I'm guessing it's something GOG has changed in their installer template since then. Now we only have to wait for them to update their installers to the latest version.

wpegg: Just out of curiousity, has anyone established what the illegal characters are? Is it simply that someone has set the installer to only accept alphanumeric characters (and space)?

Here is a list of forbidden characters in specific installers I checked.

drennan: Because it's slightly easier, not to mention a lot more legal, to manually extract an InnoSetup package than to remove a DRM system?

goplanet: Who said anything about removing anything? If the DRM is not a problem in the first place, there's no reason to remove it. I.e., simply copying and pasting a key into an installer takes 5 seconds, which is hardly an issue.

Most installers forced you to type in individual groups of characters, so copy/pasting the whole code was not an option. And if copying a code isn't a problem, then why would copying a pre-designed install path be problematic?

drennan: Thanks! The good news is that the installers you listed are older than those of Duke3D, Primordia or A New Beginning, and the list of forbidden characters no longer include parentheses in the latter three, so I'm guessing it's something GOG has changed in their installer template since then. Now we only have to wait for them to update their installers to the latest version.

Good to hear. Though I don't really understand how and why they decide to update particular installers, and they rarely seem to explain what's changed.

goplanet: Good to hear. Though I don't really understand how and why they decide to update particular installers, and they rarely seem to explain what's changed.

In many cases they haven't actually updated the game itself but rather its other components (DOSBox, graphic mode setup, etc.). If the game itself has been changed the staff will usually make a topic about it on the game's forum describing what has been fixed and so forth.

2.x installers install to to "C:\GOG Games" by default, bypassing path problems and various other potential issues; if you point an installer elsewhere other 2.x installers you run after that will see your chosen path and point there instead.

It looks like all installers will eventually be migrated to the new design.